


Make Time

by Briana_Dubs



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Accidental Confession of Love, Gen, Kid Loki, Kid Thor, M/M, Pining, Tony's a grown ass man so he's just spitting out his drink and telling him no no you can't do that, and loki can't control his filter when he's little so he kind of tells Tony that he loves him, but like, fight me, i don't understand any of how the asgard aging thing works and i don't fucking care, it's a de-aged fic but like nothing explicit happens, loki and thor are both just bratty little kids, magic tomfoolery, secret feelings, the enchantress fucks up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 18:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16101605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briana_Dubs/pseuds/Briana_Dubs
Summary: "If I can make time for you and Thor throwing little hissy fits and waking me up at two in the morning every other night, I can make plenty of time for the quick witted, sassy, snarky god of mischief that lives in this complex with me."





	Make Time

**Author's Note:**

> I do not understand any of how the aging thing works with thor and loki, so i'm doing my own thing.  
> it's too much work and I wanted to write a happy little fic, so sue me.  
> there is nothing explicit in this.  
> nobody is a gross pedo creep.  
> if you're expecting that, get out.

There had been a fight.

It had been with stupid what’s-her-face the Enchantress and her even stupider sister.

Honestly, they were all lucky it hadn’t gone any worse.

That isn’t to say it went well, though. Oh no, it went to shit so fast it made heads spin.

Okay, so picture this, the whole Avengers team is fighting with these freaky giant rainbow bugs. Hawkeye and Black Widow are both shooting and stabbing away, Captain Goody Goody is out there with Rhodey and Bucky kicking major ass, Iron Man, Falcon, and Vision are all in the skies taking care of the fliers, and Thor and Loki the two resident gods are both tackling the two fuckwad ladies with their magic bullshit. Got the picture? It’s a giant war zone.

Thor had thrown his hammer, knocked one sister to the fucking ground, and shouted something over the comms and the next thing anyone knew- blinding white light. Like, seriously blinding. As in Tony Stark in three pairs of sunglasses would still be blind, blinding. The only one who had been able to get past the light had been Vision. Since, you know, his eyes couldn’t physically get burned out of his head.

And what he reported? Hoo, boy.

All the gross colorful bugs? Gone. Vanished. Ceased to exist.

Sounds great, right? Wrong.

“Something has happened to Thor and Loki.”

Well, fuck.

Tony shouted over the comms as he made a beeline from the clouds. “What the fuck does ‘something’ mean, Vision?”

“I think it would be easiest to explain once you all were here, sir…” Tony didn’t like the sound of that. He and Falcon both skipped and skidded as they landed. Naturally, they were both picturing the worst. Were they dead? How do you kill a god?!

Pushing out of his suit and past Natasha, Tony jumped to the front where Vision was crouched down. “What!? Vision, what’s the stat… us.” Tony’s previously hurried steps petered out and he stopped dead by Vision’s side. There, huddled on the ground, were two very small and very obviously scared little kids. One with familiar blond hair and the other, hiding behind the first, with coal black.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me…”

The tiny blond kept an arm in front of the other boy and shouted at them. “Who are you!? What have you done with us!? My father will tear you apart for what you’ve done!” He stomped his foot and snarled in a way much too frightening for a boy his size. “Attacking the sons of Odin is punishable by death!”

“Thor,” Bruce spoke as he joined their group. He had been on the sidelines, the team hoping the fight wouldn’t call for a code green. His voice was quiet, his eyes wide, and his jaw slack. “Thor, what happened to you?”

The tiny blond scowled at him. “Who are you!? I demand you answer me!”

Nobody knew what to say. The first one to react was Tony. He dropped down to his knees in a crouch beside Vision. The movement drew both boys’ gazes to him and they watched him as he held out open hands.

He flipped his hands up, showing his empty palms. “Hey, hey, it’s okay.” He kept his voice gentle and calm. He knew enough about anxiety and fear to know not to be loud or move quickly. He touched his hand to his chest. “My name’s Tony. We’re friends.”

“Friends of who?” Tiny Thor demanded.

“Friends of Asgard,” Vision supplied. “We are known as the Avengers. Earth’s mightiest heroes.”

Thor perked up at that and a little smile curled across his face. “You’re warriors?!” Vision and Tony nodded. “Incredible!” Thor was beaming now, all traces of fear gone from him. His brother hiding behind him was another story. “Is father having you train with us? Are we going to learn your battle tactics?”

“No, not exactly,” Tony said, trying to smile as genuinely as he could in the moment. “He just wants us to watch you guys for a little while. He uh, said something about a great battle and he wanted to make sure you both were safe.”

“But we would be safest in Asgard!” Finally little Loki spoke. He was still cowering behind his brother, but he had popped his head up above his shoulder to shout. “We have an entire army there!”

“Shit,” Tony cursed and looked to the rest of the team.

Rhodey caught his gaze first. “Your father wanted to keep you both hidden,” he lied expertly. “He thought that your enemies would never think to look for you both here.”

“Why did he not tell us?”

“He knew you wouldn’t want to go.” Rhodey was a damn good liar. Probably got a lot of experience covering up for Tony’s bullshit. Rhodey offered a bit of a grimace to the boys. “Thor, you tend to want to charge into every situation weapons drawn.” Thor’s little face went pink at the jab.

“Right, so,” Tony stood back up and smiled. “You already know my name. But why don’t I introduce everyone else?” He pointed at the end of the line and went down. “That handsome devil down there with the fancy backpack is Sam.” Sam waved and said hello to the tiny princes. “Next to him with the silver arm is Bucky. By his side is Steve. Don’t go breaking any rules around him. He’s a bit of a stickler.” Tony caught the way Loki took a second look at Steve after he said that and couldn’t help but chuckle. The troublemaker was already taking notes. “Next we have Bruce, or Brucie Bear, as I like to call him. He’s a big ol’ softy. Great for cuddling. The lady there with the mean face is Natasha.” In response to the comment, Natasha simply offered a smile that Tony knew from experience meant she was going to stab him later. Or kick him in the nuts. One of the two. “Arrow man here is Clint. He lives on a farm. Doesn’t have any pigs though. This is Vision,” Tony patted Vision on the shoulder as he introduced him. “He’s pretty much immortal, so you guys should get along fine.” Tony took a step over to Rhodey and draped his arms across his shoulders. “And this,” he said, smiling, “Is Rhodey. The light of my life. My Platypus. My Rhodey Bear. My—“

“Yeah, okay, they get it,” Rhodey cut him off and pushed his hands off his shoulders. He looked at the two faces blinking up at him. “Tony talks a lot, in case you couldn’t tell.”

“It is wonderful to meet you all!” Thor shouted, stepping forward to shake Vision’s hand specifically. “I hope we may battle together soon!” He was smiling bright and laughed when Vision said someone so small shouldn’t be fighting. Loki was standing by his side and just looking at everyone’s faces.

 

* * *

 

Somehow the two gods got shoved on Tony and were now basically his new kids. They were in the complex with him and the others, but everyone had kind of decided that since Tony had a habit of adopting stray children that he was going to be in charge of taking care of Thor and Loki.

“So, uh, how old are you two, anyway?” Tony asked as he stood in the elevator with them. Both of the boys had been incredibly skeptical of the elevator at first. Mostly because Friday had chosen that time to say hello and they thought there was magic keeping her invisible. It took a little bit of explaining before they understood what Friday was.

“I’m ten!” Thor said, smiling bright. “Loki’s eight!” Loki huffed at not being able to talk for himself.

“Really? I was expecting you to say something like a hundred,” Tony looked down at the kids. He was confused by how they aged. They had said they aged normally until adolescence and then it slowed down, but he hadn’t expected it to be so literally true. He looked at the two of them for a minute and noticed Loki was actually a little bit taller than Thor was. Thor had said Loki was adopted. Oh, fuck, they probably didn’t know about that. Better not mention it. Still, maybe Loki not being related to Thor made him age a little differently.

“Friday, send the others a notice not to mention the elephant in the room. Reference Point Break’s comment after Natasha’s math in the helicarrier.”

“Right away, Boss. Fury might like to know about that too.”

“Probably.” Right. Fury. That’s where everybody else was. Giving him the debriefing to end all debriefings. Tony half wondered if he was going to have a stroke from the news.

“Did you really build all of this by yourself?” Tony blinked at Loki’s voice and looked down at him. The little mischief maker was scrutinizing him with a look very similar to his adult self’s squinty thinking face.

Tony smiled, though. “No, not everything. Mostly just the tech stuff. I didn’t build the floor or the walls or any of that. I just put in the lights and the air system and speakers and pretty much everything else.”

“So you’re a crafter?”

“Mmhmm,” Tony nodded. “I used to build weapons.”

“Really?!” Thor jumped up and grabbed Tony’s hand. “Have you ever built a sword!? Or an axe!?”

Tony was startled by how hard Thor pulled him down, but smiled at him anyway. “No, I mostly made missiles and things. Now, though, I build suits of armor.”

“Armor?” Thor’s whole face dropped. “That’s boring!” He let go of Tony’s hand and turned away with a pout. Tony chuckled at his upset face.

Loki had tilted his head slightly to the side and was continuing to scrutinize Tony. The little squinty eyes were hilarious. Tony had to try very hard not to laugh. “Why do you build armor now?”

Tony smirked at the little god. “That’s a story for another day, I think. For now, let’s go in and get settled. Are you guys hungry?” When Thor cheered and practically sprinted out of the elevator, Tony laughed again. “I’ll take that as a yes, then.” He paused when Loki didn’t follow at first. “Loki? You hungry too?”

Loki shook his head. “Not particularly, no.” Ooh, big words from the little god.

“Want anything to drink? I could whip up some hot chocolate pretty fast,” Tony almost said that he remembered Loki liked that, but caught himself. These two didn’t remember that they knew him. He would have a bit of a tough time catching himself on that.

“Do you have tea?”

Thor made a loud gagging noise from where he was bouncing on the couch. “Tea?” Tony raised a brow at little Loki. He took a moment to look at him and smirked. He was holding his head up and keeping his back and shoulders as straight as possible. If he didn’t know any better he would think the little godling was trying to seem grown up and impress him. The very idea had him smiling.

Nodding and walking toward the kitchen, Tony said, “Sure, we have tea. I personally am gonna have a hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles, but if you want tea, I can make some.”

And then of course the tiny little voice he was expecting followed behind him. “Well, I guess if you’re having it…” Tony was glad he was facing away. The grin on his face probably would have insulted the kid.

“Thor, you want a hot chocolate too?”

“YEAH!” Thor shouted from the other room.

Laughing, Tony started pulling out mugs as Friday heated up milk for them. If he was going to make theoretically their first cup of hot chocolate, he was going to go all out. He glanced down to his right and saw Loki fidgeting. “Hey, if you wanna go play in the other room with Thor, you can.” Loki flinched and looked up at him. Tony offered him a smile. “Seriously, kid, go have fun. Leave this to the grown up.”

 

* * *

 

The two of them had both looked like… well like kids on Christmas morning when he brought them the drinks. Thor had squealed loudly and Loki had begun to before yelping as Thor knocked both of them off the couch. Tony would have to clean that, too, now that he looked at it. There was dirt and mud all over it.

The three of them had sat down and had enjoyed their drinks in happy quiet. It wasn’t silent, since there was a lot of happy moaning and other such noises from them, but it was still nice. Tony was just happy to see that Loki was loosening up like Thor already had.

He, of course, went spring tight when the others got back. It wasn’t even everyone, but Tony saw the way he tried to straighten himself out when the doors opened. So much for their chocolate progress.

“Hey guys,” Tony greeted. “How’d Fury take it?”

Rhodey barked out a single laugh. “Looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel.”

“Otherwise, it was pretty good,” Natasha said. Tony offered a little wave to Vision and Wanda when he saw them come in. The two of them were already heading off to their personal rooms. Probably to suck face. Gross. It looked like Steve and Bucky were the only other two with them.

“No Bruce?”

Rhodey shook his head and said, “He felt like it would be a bad idea for the other guy to see… that.”

“Good point.” Tony noticed Rhodey walking over to him and felt his whole body tensing up.

“Pepper wants to talk to you,” he said, handing him a phone with a vicious smile. “I’ll see you later, bud.”

Tony normally would have cursed him out as he walked away, but considering the younger company he held his tongue. He got up to talk to Pepper in another room so the kids wouldn’t have to hear any of it.

Natasha, Steve, and Bucky came over to the two kids while he was gone and sat down on the floor with them. Thor immediately set his sights on Bucky. “How come you’ve got a metal arm?”

“I lost my old one in an accident,” Bucky answered, leaving out any details whatsoever.

“Does it turn into a sword?”

“No, it’s just an arm,” Bucky said, flexing it and rotating it around a few times to demonstrate.

Thor frowned. “That’s boring.” He proceeded to slurp up the remainder of his drink, getting chocolate and cream all over his face.

Steve pulled out a napkin and wiped his face clean.

 

* * *

 

The first night with the tiny gods was a tough one. Tony had shown them both a room that he said they could share if they wanted, but quickly saw the nervous looks on both their faces. Sleeping in an unfamiliar place with strangers was probably a tall order.

Sighing, Tony bent forward to pat them both on the head. “Tell you what? Since it’s your first night, you guys can sleep with me, okay?” Both their faces relaxed almost instantly. They agreed and followed after him as he led the way to his own bedroom.

That was how Tony ended up with two tiny kids who each must have weighed two hundred pounds snuggled up on him in bed. It felt like he was being squished under a car. But they both were snoring and looked so peaceful and happy that he had to suffer through it. He only managed to fall asleep when Thor rolled off of his chest and attached to his arm like a clingy little octopus. Loki was still plastered against his torso, but at least it was less weight crushing him.

The problem with sleeping when there’s extreme weight pressing down on you and you’ve been tortured with oxygen deprivation? You have horrible nightmares induced by the state your body is in.

Tony woke up nearly screaming. He was sure he knocked both the gods over, but he was too panicked to stop. He ran to the bathroom, gasping, wobbling, and collapsed in front of the toilet. He felt like he was spewing out his organs when he threw up into the basin. Everything hurt. His lungs felt like they were on fire. He tried not to close his eyes. Every time he did he found himself back in that cave. He couldn’t go back there again. He just needed…

“Tony?”

Shit. Lifting his head weakly, Tony looked over his shoulder at the two tiny faces looking at him. “Hey kiddos,” he tried to smile for them. “Don’t worry, it’s okay…”

The two of them came closer to him and carefully settled themselves down on the floor next to him. “What happened?” Loki asked, holding part of his oversized pajamas like a blanket.

“Just a bad dream,” Tony said, patting him on the shoulder. “I’ll be all right in just a sec.” To his surprise, neither of them moved. They both stayed by his side until he felt well enough to get up and go back to bed. He hated how touched he was by that.

 

* * *

 

Peter came over the next morning. Tony had made sure to send him a text warning him of the situation, so at least he wasn’t quite as shocked seeing itty bitty Thor and Loki sitting on the couch with Tony. They were watching cartoons.

“Hi Mister Stark!” Peter greeted, throwing his backpack off and letting it drop to the ground. He had a big smile on his face and Tony could already see him glancing back and forth between the two gods.

“Heya kid,” Tony called to him before eating another spoonful of cereal.

Peter bounded over to the side of the couch, still with that same smile on his face. He looked like he was trying hard not to laugh or squeal. “Who are your new friends, Mister Stark?” Oh, gross. Tony wanted to roll his eyes at the kid.

“Right, right,” he waved his spoon toward Thor on his left. “Peter, this is Thor.” He waved to Loki on his right. “And this is Loki.” He waved the spoon around in the air then. “Thor, Loki, this is Peter Parker. If anyone tells you he’s my son they’re lying to you.”

Peter was still grinning wide. He leaned forward to look at them a little better. Probably taking mental photographs of little Thor. His alien crush all small and cute. Must have been weird for him. “Hi Thor! Hi Loki! It’s nice to meet you both!”

“Hello!” Thor beamed right back at Peter. Loki said a quieter hello and kept eating his food.

“What are you guys doing today?” Peter asked, sitting down on the arm of the couch next to Loki.

Tony shrugged. “Everyone else kinda gave me babysitting duty, so I’m just gonna hang out with Thor and Loki today. We could go over your schematics today if these two are okay with it.”

“Why not do something fun instead?” Peter suggested. Tony wanted to hit him. That big smile on his face was just pure evil. Judging by how Loki had turned to inspect him, he knew Peter wanted to cause mischief just as well as Tony did. “Ooh, we could go to the zoo!”

“Zoo?” Loki turned to raise an eyebrow at Tony.

Groaning, Tony set down his food and stood up. Looks like they’re going to the zoo.

 

* * *

 

The team had been looking for the Enchantress and her sister for over a month.

Thor and Loki had been stuck as children for over a month!

Tony had been on babysitting duty for over a _month_!

He wanted to scream some days. When a thunder god threw a temper tantrum it left the immediate surrounding area a singed mess. When a magic mischief maker did it threw everything not bolted down into the nearest wall. Tony’s stuff was wrecked. One month and there had been at least six tantrums from both of the boys.

Thor’s tantrums were about what you would expect. He didn’t get what he wanted, or felt like someone was being unfair to him and he blew up. Sparks of electricity flying everywhere, some things catching fire, and static hair for everyone else in the room. After losing a game, Thor had absolutely exploded in rage and Tony’s monopoly game was ruined forever.

Loki’s first tantrum had been… Eye opening. He had been with Tony in his workshop, helping him build things. It had been two weeks after the kids first came to be with them. That was the way Tony had been wording it. Anyway, back to Loki’s first tantrum. Tony and Loki had been working on an arm for one of the suits. And wasn’t that a trip, Loki wanted to help him work on a suit! They had been talking and working for most of the day when Thor and Peter came to the workshop and dragged Tony away from the arm. Before anyone could process it, the room was flooded with green light and every single object on every single surface was sent smashing into the walls. It physically knocked all of them over and felt like a small bomb had gone off. When Tony turned himself around to look at Loki, he saw that green light swirling around the fuming child. He had started screeching and crying and wailing about how it was supposed to be his day with Tony and how Thor always took his friends away. It had taken Tony holding Loki in his arms and assuring him that he wasn’t leaving for him to calm down.

So Loki was… clingy.

He was incredibly attached to Tony. It had surprised everybody. Almost everyone had assumed he would have been closer to Wanda, since she knew about magic too. But he seemed like he kind of hated her. He liked Strange even less, though, which was less surprising. Loki always got angry or upset when someone took Tony away from an activity he had been doing with him. Always. It had been the reason for his three most recent tantrums.

Thor seemed to get along really well with Steve and Bucky. He liked Bruce well enough, but Bruce didn’t stop by very often. He had confided in Tony that it felt wrong being around his boyfriend when he was like this. He said it made him feel like a creepy old man and so he only came by every now and then to check on them. Thor liked Tony, too, but clearly not as much as Loki did.

Loki had a bit of a habit of holding Tony’s hand whenever they went out anywhere. They had gone to the park and Thor had run off to play when he saw a bunch of kids on a playground, but Loki had hung back and reached up to cling to Tony. He had looped his little hand in with his and refused to budge any time Tony asked him if he wanted to go play too. Even Peter going with them and running off to play too hadn’t been enough to convince Loki to let go of Tony. It had taken Tony himself getting up and bringing Loki to one of the swings for him to finally loosen up and play with the other children.

Vision had offered up his theories for why Loki was so clingy. “Perhaps he feels a sense of familiarity when he is with you,” he said, “On a subconscious level, he feels he knows you and can trust you. Perhaps he admires your craftsmanship and your intellect. Even at such a young age his reading level is level with your own.” Tony thought that one was pretty plausible. When he had been young he had kind of gravitated towards adults. He had felt like kids his own age were so stupid and he had wanted to do something that made him think. Stimulation had been his big thing as a child.

If he had to admit, he was getting pretty attached to the kid, too. Adult Loki had never been so affectionate. Hell, he had never even seemed interested in anything Tony did. He had only ever really tolerated him and spoke when it felt convenient. Their conversations had been nice and Tony had enjoyed talking to someone so smart, but it felt like Loki had never gone out of his way to spend time with Tony. Little Loki was a different story.

Even though the two gods were finally sleeping in their own room, Loki would rush into Tony’s room in the mornings and wake him up by pouncing on his bed. It was like getting hit by a truck. Usually Thor did it with him, too, so make that _two_ trucks. What a way to wake up.

Sometimes the two of them would come and sleep with him too. They would try to be sneaky, but when you weigh as much as the two of them, stealth was not something that you were good at. They always woke Tony up. Always.

There had been one night, though, when Tony wasn’t woken up by the feeling of his bed lurching to one side. He had been woken up by a soft tug to his sleeve and a tiny little voice calling his name. When he opened his eyes he came face to face with a sniffling, red eyed Loki. He sat up immediately.

“Loki? Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” He quickly reached both arms out and started to tug him in toward his bed. “C’mere, c’mere.” Loki started whimpering and sniffling louder as he crawled up into the bed. He wrapped his little arms tight around Tony and sobbed into his shirt. Tony began rubbing circles against Loki’s back. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay, Loki… I’m here. I’ve got you.” He spoke softly and rubbed his back until the tiny god’s crying faded into slow, steady breathing and his weight pressed more firmly against Tony as he fell asleep. He cradled him close and didn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night. Friday actually brought up a video on mute for him to watch while he held Loki. He made a note to thank her for it later.

He never asked him what his nightmare was about.

 

* * *

 

The team had been making real progress with the Enchantress. They had found and captured her sister and because of all the studies they had done on Loki’s magic and the amount of tech Tony had made specifically _for Loki_ , they were able to keep her contained. Easily contained, too. She was nowhere near as strong as Loki, apparently. Friday was giving Tony updates on the readings every hour and her attempts at escape weren’t even phasing the shackles they had made. Tony was sure that if Loki were his normal self he would be absolutely loving this. Having physical proof that he was more powerful than another magic user.

Since they had her sister, the team was sure that the enchantress would show herself eventually. Sibling honor, and all.

Tony was walking in the park with Thor and Loki and a couple other members of the team today. Everything was going well until suddenly someone recognized him and Cap. All hell broke loose before Tony could blink.

Crowds started swarming them. They were all being pushed and shoved and bombarded with requests for autographs and photos. Tony fought against it, but he felt the tiny hand in his grip vanish after a particularly rough push from a group of girls. And he lost sight of Loki.

“Uh excus-excuse me, guys, lo-look, guys, please, I just, guys-“ Tony was spinning around, standing up on his toes, peering around, desperately trying to find the two kids. “Please, move, I just need to- Loki! Loki!”

And then came the screaming. The world exploded in a ball of green light. Everyone within thirty feet was sent tumbling to the ground and the wailing voice was heard ringing out over the crowd. Loki was there, on his knees, shrieking for Tony. Objects and people around him were suspended in the air as he sobbed and choked on his tears. From where he had fallen to the ground, Tony could hear the way he screamed. He scrambled to his feet, tripped over himself and someone else’s legs, and Tony ran to him.

He sprinted, shouting Loki’s name, and the energy in the air fell apart. Loki’s shining, wet eyes lifted and found Tony running to him, and he loosed another loud, shaking sob. Tony dropped to his knees and pulled Loki into his arms. Loki’s arms pulled on the back of his shirt and he shoved his face into Tony’s shoulder hard.

“It’s okay, it’s okay! I’m here, I’ve got you!”

Loki choked and hiccupped. “Where were you!? I couldn’t se- see you!” His hands ripped the fabric of Tony’s shirt. “I thought you were gone! I- I don’t- I don’t wanna be alone!”

A strong force thumped against him and Tony quickly wrapped an arm around Thor too. He held them both as tight as he could. Tears were rolling down his own cheeks, and Tony cursed aloud. “Damnit…! Fuck, I’m sorry. Shh, shh! I’m here now, I’m here. I’ve got you. I’m not gonna let you go, okay? I’ve got you.”

The three of them knelt there in the middle of the park and cried. They cried until they were too exhausted to cry any more.

Tony wondered to himself when he had grown so attached to them. How had he let himself think of them as children he had to take care of when he knew that this wasn’t who they were? He had thought he was careful. He thought he had kept himself at a distance. But, no. When he and Cap lifted the two tiny gods up and he carried them back to the complex he knew. He had let himself get attached just like always. He let himself care and love and pour his whole heart into them just like he did with everything else.

And people had made jokes about him being heartless. Hah! If they could only see him now.

 

* * *

 

Tony had come back from a business trip to find Loki with his hair in delicate little braids and his nails polished a dark shade of green. Natasha and Wanda both were sitting with him and each had the same shade of polish on their own nails.

“Hey everybody,” he greeted after a moment of just staring at the odd trio.

Loki bounced right up off the couch when he heard his voice and sprinted over to him. “Tony!” He jumped up and yanked him down for a hug as soon as he could.

“Where’s Thor?” he asked, scanning the room.

“Sam and Steve are taking him on a tour of some military base,” Natasha answered. “So the three of us had a girls’ night.” Tony smiled at that and looked at Loki.

“Girls’ night, huh? What’d you guys do? Any pillow fights?”

“Oh, you know, the usual,” Wanda spoke, closing the book she was holding. “Did each other’s hair, ate sweets and talked about boys.” Tony noted the predatory look in both her eyes and Natasha’s. It left him confused and a little bit nervous.

“Boys, huh?” Tony had to struggle not to drop Loki as he carried him back toward the couch. He was pretty good at hiding when he was having a hard time in general… He had also taken to wearing arm braces under his clothes so he could fake it easier. “Sounds right up my alley.”

Wanda’s eyes narrowed as he set Loki down. Natasha’s did as well when he patted him on the head and Loki laughed. Okay… Something definitely happened while he was gone.

“Um… Actually… Nat, uh, I needed to talk to you about something… business stuff, you know? Would you mind?” He barely had finished motioning to the hallway before she was on her feet and walking past him. Yep. Something happened. Either he was a dead man, or someone else was.

They walked four rooms down the hall and as soon as they were alone behind a locked door, Natasha shoved him. He flopped backwards and landed on the lounge chair in the room. Was this Bruce’s meditation room? Good choice. Soundproof. Perfect spot for her to kill him.

“Not sure what I did to deserve that, but okay,” Tony said, sitting back up and brushing himself free of imaginary dust.

“You had better hope we find this Enchantress soon, Stark!” She hissed in his face, pointing a finger dangerously close to his eyes.

“Why? What’d I do?”

“Loki, you absolute troglodyte!” Natasha shouted. “The poor kid is head over heels for you, you fucking dipshit!”

Tony stared.

Then blinked.

Then the words processed.

“He’s _what_!?”

She jabbed her finger into his chest. “When Wanda says we talked about boys, we talked about _boys_! Guys you have a crush on, guys you want to marry, guys you want to fuck?!? Guess who our resident godling cooed about when we asked him!! Take a wild fucking guess, Stark.”

Okay, now the poking was really starting to hurt. Tony had to pull her wrist so she stopped stabbing into him with her nails.

“You can’t be serious.”

Natasha scoffed so harshly it actually moved her hair. She took a step back and held her hands up in classic ‘damsel’ pose. “ _Oh, Tony’s so great! He’s so kind and so smart! I’ve never met anyone else like him! Tony’s just_ so _wonderful! Tony, Tony, Tony_!” She made sure her cooing and swooning was as obnoxious as possible before she finished off with a loud and violent gag. She stomped right back into his personal space. “Listen, Stark. You need to back the fuck off. He’s just a kid and I don’t trust you enough to think you might not accidentally hurt him.” Tony started to argue but she stopped him, slapping a hand over his mouth. “No, you listen. We don’t know if he and Thor will remember everything that happened during all of this when we figure out how to turn them back. If he turns back and hates you for breaking his heart, it’s over. You know as well as any of us that if he sets his mind to something the only one who can stop him is Thor. And if Thor knows you hurt him, I can’t count on him saving your ass.”

She let her hand fall.

“Fuck… You’ve got a point…” Tony ran his hand through his hair and exhaled slowly. “All right… I’ll try. I’ll try, Nat.”

“Good. See to it you do.”

 

* * *

 

Tony was watching a movie with Loki that night. Thor was still with Steve and Sam, so it was just the two of them for now. Wanda and Nat had been incredibly hesitant to leave them alone, but eventually did when it seemed like Loki was more invested in the movie than anything else.

It had come out of nowhere.

They were just sitting there watching. Loki had curled up under a blanket with Tony and they were both eating popcorn. The film was progressing normally, Loki was munching quietly, and Tony was texting Steve for updates on Thor.

“Hey Tony?”

“Hm,” He glanced at Loki before looking back at his phone. He took a quick swig of water. Salty fucking popcorn. Damn.

Loki shifted a little on the couch. “When I’m grown, I’m gonna marry you.”

Tony spat the water out so hard it hit the TV.

“You, what!?”

Loki’s face went red and his eyes went watery at Tony’s reaction. He wiggled out of the blanket. He looked ready to cry. Tony couldn’t let that happen.

He quickly put a hand on Loki’s shoulder. “Loki, woah, woah, hold on. Wha- what do you mean you’re going to marry me?”

“I- I just… I thought…”

Okay, stuttering, watery eyed mini god is bad. Let’s try again, Tony. He squeezed his shoulder. “Hey, hey, relax. No waterworks, okay?” Loki took a moment before he bit his lower lip and nodded. His eyes were still glimmering, but he put on as brave a face as he could. “Loki, you’re too small to be making decisions like that.”

“That’s why I said when I’m grown!”

“No! No, no.” Tony squeezed his shoulder again. “No, no. You make those decisions when you’re actually grown. Not before.” Loki opened his mouth to argue again. “You can’t make yourself keep promises like that, Loki. Believe me, I tried.”

Loki blinked and a few stray tears leaked out of his big green eyes. “You did?”

Tony nodded. “Mmhmm. You know what I promised myself I would do when I was grown?” Loki shook his head no. “I promised myself I was going to be bigger and stronger and better than Captain America. You know. Steve.”

Loki frowned. “But he’s bigger than you are.”

“Exactly,” Tony said. “But when I was little, I didn’t know how big I was going to get. And right now you’re little. You don’t know if you’ll still like me when you get big. Heck, you might hate me.” Loki pouted at that. “Look, the point is, there’s still a long time before that, and you don’t know what will happen between now and then. Okay?”

Loki was quiet for a moment. He searched Tony’s face a few times before eventually nodding and saying a quiet, “Okay.”

 

* * *

 

The spell had been lifted. The Enchantress had come to rescue her sister, got captured, and a deal was made that once she lifted the spell from Thor and Loki that she and her sister could go.

It had been twenty four hours since the lifting of the spell and Tony hadn’t seen Loki once. Thor and Bruce had reunited with big hugs and sappy kisses and Hulk had even emerged he was so happy to have ‘Baby Arms’ back.

Guess he couldn’t exactly blame him. From what he saw with Thor it looked like he remembered everything from his time as a child. Which meant Loki remembered telling Tony he wanted to marry him. Pretty embarrassing.

So when Tony went into the kitchen and found Loki sitting there, he was naturally surprised. “Uh… Hi…?”

Loki’s face was a calm neutral when he responded. “Hello, Tony.”

“So, um… you wanna talk about it?”

The god nodded. “I do.”

With a sigh, Tony dropped himself onto one of the barstools. “All right. Whenever you’re ready, Bambi.”

Loki took a moment of just looking at Tony before he spoke. Tony saw him clenching and unclenching his fist. “I am… sorry… that you had to deal with my affections in that way, Stark. I understand I have made you uncomfortable and I apologize for my behavior during these past few months.”

“Behavior?”

Loki nodded again. “My fits at losing time with you. My hysteria at losing sight of you in the park… My insistence to have you all to myself… I was…” Tony wondered if he was going to say ‘not myself’ but then that wouldn’t be true would it? Because that was still Loki. In fact it was probably the barest form of Loki. Before his whole life happened. Before he had been tortured and corrupted. “Blunt, I suppose would be a good word for it… At that age I had not yet learned that my needs and desires were not the most important thing in the world. I am sorry for how selfish I was in hoarding you away like that.”

Selfish… Hoarding…?

Was… was Loki…?

“Wait, wait, wait. Are you apologizing for spending time with me? For… for _wanting_ to spend time with me?” Tony felt like this had to be a joke.

Loki grimaced. “I was young,” he said, not looking up at Tony. “I had not yet learned… I did not understand that others have lives that do not revolve around me. My attempts to keep you all to myself… I was still in the mindset that I did not have to share what I wanted.”

Mindset…?

What was…?

…Oh!

Oh!

Oh, fuck!

Tony reached a hand out and placed it over Loki’s. The god’s eyes flicked up to his face and a curious, confused expression crossed his features. “Loki… Are you saying that all this time… the only reason you’ve been so distant with me is because you were afraid of being selfish?”

Loki’s face dusted pink around the cheeks. “I had assumed…” He flexed the hand Tony was holding. “You have so many who rely on you. So many who look to you and truly need you… I did not wish to be a bother to you by pestering you for time you did not have… I am sorry my child self did not understand that you are a busy man with many who love and care for you.”

Tony squeezed Loki’s hand and smiled at Loki. “Lokes, you don’t have to apologize for any of that. Honestly, I’m glad to know all of that. I’m not upset.”

“Others are far more worthy of your time than I am…”

Tony let out a tiny little chuckle and reached his other hand out. After a beat, Loki lifted his free hand and let Tony hold it as well. “Hey, if I can make time for you and Thor throwing little hissy fits and waking me up at two in the morning every other night, I can make plenty of time for the quick witted, sassy, snarky god of mischief that lives in this complex with me. Hell, I’ll probably have time left over!”

Loki loosed the tiniest, breathiest laugh and his face lit up with a disbelieving smile. He laced his fingers with Tony’s and moved forward to peck a soft kiss to his lips.

Tony was a little startled by the show of affection, but smiled anyway.

“Now, since I am grown… About my marriage proposal.”

**Author's Note:**

> give me back my Loki, Marvel


End file.
